Trio of $100,000-plus horses sold at sale

East Rutherford, NJ --- The inaugural harness racing spring mixed sale, including nearly two dozen 2-year-olds in training, was held Sunday afternoon (May 18) at The Meadowlands by the Tattersalls Sales Company.

Three horses sold for more than $100,000, including the $157,000 sales topper, the 4-year-old pacing mare American In Paris. The daughter of American Ideal has been racing in Open company at The Meadowlands and took a mark of 1:50 this year to go with her $173,309 in career earnings. She was purchased by Scott DiDomenico as agent and was previously campaigned in the Ron Burke Stable and owned by Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi, LLC.

Among the 2-year-olds in training contingent, hip #1, Heavenly Tunes, was the top seller at $35,000 to Kostas Tsanakos of East Hanover, N.J., who will also train the horse at his farm in Millstone, N.J.

“I like him, I like his looks,” said Tsanakos. “He was a good size horse, put together well. I looked at others, but I liked him the most. I have one I’m bringing up myself and this one is almost ready to go.”

The concept of selling young, unraced but trained and almost ready to race horses is an established one in the Thoroughbred business, but new to Standardbreds.

“I think it went reasonably well,” said David Reid, general manager and director of operations for the sale. “There was definitely interest in the 2-year-olds and it’s a market we’re going to try to continue to grow. We have to tweak some things, but I was reasonably satisfied with the results.”

Reid indicated that the juveniles will be tracked for future performance, as are all Tattersalls Sales graduates.

“We always want graduates to advance as stakes winners or solid performers but we’ll pay special attention to the 2-year-olds,” he said.

The sale will be back again next year, with 2-year-olds offered once again.

“It will definitely be a permanent fixture on the sales schedule,” said Reid. “We got a lot of positive feedback and people will have a little head start next year. I definitely think horsemen will plan to target a spring mixed sale next year and I think we’ll have more 2-year-olds offered for sale than we did this year. I think it will be an opportunity for horsemen to buy reasonably priced horses or maybe even pick up the level of individual pedigree. I think you will see a better turnout next year from a consigner point of view. I think it’s going to have some legs.”